There have in the past been provided a plurality of manual knife sharpening instruments that have achieved a considerable degree of commercial success and one such knife sharpening device includes a pair of crossed abrasive rods usually constructed of compressed ceramic or graphite powder, or in some cases serrated hardened steel. One of these is a table-mounted implement having a wooden base with a plurality of angularly related holes in the base that removably receive the abrasive rods. The base is rectangular and elongated and the user manually grasps one end of this base and forces it down against the supporting surface or table with the rods diverging generally vertically upwardly. This knife sharpening device has been found quite adequate, but it is not readily portable and in some positions of the device the user's supporting hand, i.e. the hand on the base, is somewhat close to the knife sharpening area subjecting it to some physical risk.
Another knife sharpening device that has found some success in the marketplace is a crossed abrasive rod sharpener having a short plastic handle. This device has also achieved considerable success in the marketplace and is reasonably safe but it does have the disadvantage that it cannot be supported readily on available supporting surfaces and it is also somewhat difficult to align with respect to the knife blade surfaces to be sharpened.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved manual knife sharpening instrument that obviates the problem noted above in prior art knife sharpening devices.